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Iceland drew with Argentina! Good stuff!

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Iceland drew with Argentina! Good stuff!

Yeah, that was a good match!

Stayed up late to watch it and was not disappointed, Iceland played an absolute blinder, defensive but when they went on the attack they showed a hell of a lot of talent and determination. Probably the best game so far.

Denmark beat Peru 1-0, Croatia beat Nigeria 2-0.

Next up Costa Rica v Serbia, Germany v Mexico (which should be good) and Brazil v Switzerland.

Hoping Germany doesn’t get the defending champion curse

Congratulations to Mexico.

 d-usa wrote:
Hoping Germany doesn’t get the defending champion curse

Well-deserved loss against Mexico. I suppose they'll survive the group, but after that Brazil will get their revenge.

Very good football matches so far, regardless of which team someone supports they play nice football.

I think we will see an interesting World Cup this year!

Viva Mexico!

Rather enjoying the self aware adverts on ITV (British tv channel), taking the piss out of England's chances of winning. I think they accurately reflect the English attitude to international football at the moment.

And bloody well done to Iceland and Mexico. Some very enjoyable games and results so far.

 Henry wrote:
Rather enjoying the self aware adverts on ITV (British tv channel), taking the piss out of England's chances of winning. I think they accurately reflect the English attitude to international football at the moment.

And bloody well done to Iceland and Mexico. Some very enjoyable games and results so far.

At least England made it in... The Netherlands on the other hand...
Also, I will cheer for everyone who beats the Germans. Viva Mexico!

The Germans lost, but it’s the furthest we’ve made it into Russia before getting beaten.

Well done to the Mexicans! Nice that Brazil drew against Switzerland, not looking good for the favourites so far.

Less than 24hrs to see how England manages to screw up this time! I wonder what new and inventive way they will come up with this time round...

This has been a pretty horrific tournament for the big names so far. Spain, Brazil, Germany, and Argentina all failed to win their opening matches. To be fair to Spain, Portugal is not exactly a pushover but the others couldn't manage to best what most would consider fairly middling teams. I always root for the Germans but it seems the pattern of returning champions being no good is still going strong. I hope they can pick up the pace because they'll need to if they want to advance.

 d-usa wrote:
The Germans lost, but it’s the furthest we’ve made it into Russia before getting beaten.

In Russia The world cups you)

But most of the games are intresting so far.

And I wonder - how many football fans would bring their warhammer armies to have a casual play with locals?

Not Warhammer but I have with X-Wing before.

 creeping-deth87 wrote:
This has been a pretty horrific tournament for the big names so far. Spain, Brazil, Germany, and Argentina all failed to win their opening matches. To be fair to Spain, Portugal is not exactly a pushover but the others couldn't manage to best what most would consider fairly middling teams. I always root for the Germans but it seems the pattern of returning champions being no good is still going strong. I hope they can pick up the pace because they'll need to if they want to advance.

I totally agree for Portugal, to be fair to the Germans as well though, Mexico is no push over either. In the last World cup they only got eliminated due to a dubious penalty given in the very last minute. The Mexicans generally play very nice and quick football, although not always getting the results.

Iceland on the other hand is like Greece used to be 10-12 years ago, they know their limits and base their success on solid defense. Switzerland has also created a more solid team over the past decade and pushed with a bit of luck (see what I did here?) to lock a draw.

All 4 games I enjoyed very much, it's not a matter of goals scored but of football plays in my humble opinion. And today's football has become real fast, a real feast for football fans worldwide. Keep them coming!

I feel like this has been a pretty good tournament so far with a few surprises thrown in.

Watching the South Korea/Sweden game, since they are both due to still play Germany. Its a pretty dirty game so far, with South Korea playing a desperate defense. The Swedes are practically living on the Korean half of the field. Still tied though.

Bloody Korean's running around like a bunch of school boys, can't keep their hands to themselves, most ridiculous tackling I've seen yet LOL.

Sweden struggling, again all the big boys struggling and the under-dogs doing above and beyond expected.

Great cup so far.

Sigh, England.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Sigh, England.

Well it's only telling people what we already knew. If they can't beat a mediocre team at best then they might huff and puff through the first round but as soon as they come up against a decent opposition where they can't rely on them having set piece defence skills of a playground then they will be out.

England.

A mediocre team that did literal anything and everything to slow the game down, players taking every opportunity to go to ground, taking forever to back off 10 yards for free kicks etc etc.

Tunisia deserved nothing from this game and I am glad they got that.

Way to do it the hard way England! Who would have thought... The refing in that game was shocking though, I guess Stalingrad doesn't have the capability for VAR.

Agreed. Whatever anyone might say about England's performance, Tunisia deserved nothing from that.

From the first round so far it's Spain and Portugal that the other teams will be looking at as the serious competition. Both Brazil and Germany can't be discounted, but they need to wake up quick. Belgium's result was strong but, like Russia, against a minnow so they can't be judged immediately.

For those who watched on the BBC, does anybody else want to get rid of Martin Keown?

It felt like he spent a good 60minutes of that match dumping on England to then do a complete 180 at the end.

I never thought I'd see the day I wanted Andy Townsend back as a pundit.

 Mozzyfuzzy wrote:
A mediocre team that did literal anything and everything to slow the game down, players taking every opportunity to go to ground, taking forever to back off 10 yards for free kicks etc etc.

Tunisia deserved nothing from this game and I am glad they got that.

They played to a certain strategy. You can't criticise them for this. If they tried a free flowing passing game they wouldn't have stood a chance. It's a competition and they play to their strengths. It's up to England to beat that and realistically they got lucky because it was one of the few times they pressed in the second half. The other point to note is that you have to take your chances. They had lots in the first 20 minutes and could have put the game to bed. Instead they gave the opposition a chance and they almost paid for it. They *will* pay for it against a decent team. If they play like that against Belgium they are going to get a right spanking.

U-S-A!!!
U-S-A!!!
U-S-A!!!

...

oh, wait...

Whirlwind,

Mozzyfuzzy's post didn't mention England once. Their post was a criticism of a poor team that played with poor sportsmanship and deservedly lost. Given how many great matches we've seen so far it is a shame that Tunisia set themselves out to play in this less than sporting manner.
For the sake of everyone on this thread let's not take every comment aimed at another team and use it as an opportunity to bash/hype England.

 Henry wrote:
For the sake of everyone on this thread let's not take every comment aimed at another team ans use it as an opportunity to bash/hype England.

Indeed. There are far worse teams out there, incompetents who didn't even qualify against the weakest opposition possible.